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Thursday, October 11, 2007

Three Cheers for Honest Shoppers

As I've been slowly catching up on my favorite blogs, I couldn't help but LOVE this post by Treppenwitz. If you haven't seen it yet, this is a must-read. Excerpt:

When I finished picking out the goods I walked up to the 'Express Checkout' line and noticed that it was fairly long. However, I wasn't overly concerned since the sign clearly stated '10 items or less'... so things should move along quickly.

Yeah right.

Directly in front of me in line I noticed two women with a shopping cart that was 2/3 full. I politely pointed out that they were in the express line and that they had too many items. But instead of begging my forgiveness and going to another line, one of the women gave me a mirthless grin and said, "We're together... we each have ten items". The two of them stood with arms folded across ample bosoms, daring me to challenge their clever ploy.

I took another look at their shopping cart and my blood pressure started to climb as I noticed that just the items on top approached the stated number... there must have been two or three times that number of things buried underneath.

This is the moment of truth that most immigrants are intimately familiar with. Do you marshal your limited Hebrew and make a fuss... risking having unhelpful idiots around you jump in with "What's the big deal... just let them go... it isn't worth all the yelling"? Or do you sit quietly and feel like the biggest frayer in the world because somebody is flouting the rules and wasting your valuable time in the process?

This time I decided to make a fuss.

4 comments:

  1. I think this man have a great courage to tell these two women but ezzie please explain to me, why is he allowed to do that? he said he was uncomfortable about witness that caused these women public embrassed?

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  2. It doesn't bother me; to some extent, I think that certain actions deserve to be embarrassed as it stops them from happening somewhat. These are grown women, not children, and as such are responsible for their actions.

    From a halachic viewpoint, I don't have any clue whether this would be allowed.

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  3. Brazen people bank on other, more sensitive, people giving them a wide berth so as not make a scene. The brazen need a tough response from their victims so there won't be more victims later.

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  4. One is to avoid embarrassing another; I don’t recall anything about allowing others to embarrass themselves.

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